Earlier this week, the nation lost one of its most learned, progressive and profound leaders, as former PM Dr Manmohan Singh breathed his last. He was 92, and had been battling health conditions for many years.
In 2019, a movie called, ‘The Accidental Prime Minister’, roughly based on his tenure as PM, was released, that starred Anupam Kher in the lead portraying the former PM. However, not only the movie tanked at the BO, Anupam was severly trolled for making a mockery of such a great human being, a decision he says he has regretted later. Later, journalist Vir Sanghvi took to his X and said,, “If you want to remember the lies that were told about Manmohan Singh you should rewatch The Accidental Prime Minister. It is not only one of the worst Hindi movies ever made but is an example of how media was used to tarnish the name of a good man.”
Reacting to this, Hansal Mehta, who was the creative director of the movie wrote, “+100.”
Now, Anupam, responding to Hansal’s tweet, expressed his anger and said, “The HYPOCRITE in this thread is NOT @virsanghvi. He has the freedom to not like a film. But @mehtahansal was the #CreativeDirector of #TheAccidentalPrimeMinister. Who was present at the entire shoot of the film in England! Giving his creative inputs and must have taken the fee also for it. So for him to say 100% to #VirSanghvi’s comment is so messed up and full of double standards! Not that I agree with Mr. Sanghvi but we are all capable of doing bad or indifferent work. But we should OWN it. Not like #HansalMehta trying to earn some brownies from certain section of people. Common Hansal!! Grow up! I still have all our videos and pics of the shoot together!”
Hansal soon hit back at Anupam and said, “Of course I own my mistakes Mr Kher. And I can admit that I made a mistake. Can’t I sir? I did my job as professionally as I was allowed to. Can you deny that? But it doesn’t mean I have to keep defending the film or that it makes me lose objectivity about my error of judgement. About brownie points and hypocrisy I respectfully submit that you seem to be evaluating people by the same yardstick you evaluate yourself.”
He also tweeted, “And by the way @anupampkher sir… you can say all you want. Call me names if you wish. Apologies if I’ve inadvertently hurt you. Sending love to you. Whenever you wish we will speak and clear the air. I will not give space to trolls to distort this further and have a field day at our expense. Good night, belated X’mas greetings and a happy new year in advance. To you and to all the hyperactive trolls.”
